Birthday Preparations

Once again, things have been busy around these parts. There has been much crafting (mainly crochet) in the evenings when the Little Lady is asleep. There has also been preparation for the Little Lady's third birthday next week - agh can't believe I will have a 3 year old! She's having a little party with her friends and I'm currently in the process of (trying) to make a cake for her. I've never done the whole party cake thing, where you cover it in roll-out icing and make it look all pretty, so I'm excited to have a go at that. The tricky part is the actual cake, as Little P has food allergies - dairy and egg - pretty standard in a cake mix! I've made cakes before for her, but they always turn out pretty flat, but there was one Victoria sponge type thing I made once which was great... only trouble is I didn't bookmark the recipe and I am trawling the net trying to re-find it! If it all goes to plan and the cake works, I will show it off here, if it's a complete failure I'll just let the vaults of time swallow it up and forget about it. One 'trial' cake is already out on the lawn for the birds... it was definitely not the recipe I tried before!
Little P is super excited about her birthday this year, finally old enough to appreciate it and understand. It's all about princesses with her at the moment - completely the opposite of me and how I was as a child. She's so imaginative as keeps playing with her imaginary princess friends in the house - this morning they were all at a Royal Ball, and it was so busy we had to queue to get a ticket!
So needless to say, I have a few princess related presents for her birthday - not that I'm trying to fuel the obsession! I also thought it would be nice to make her a little something, as I don't seem to have made her a toy for quite some time. Princess? no... she has enough of them... but maybe a Tinkerbell? I had a look for some patterns on Ravelry and decided to give this one a go as I thought it was sweet (not necessarily the most Tink-like but super cuddly)

I used Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo, which is still one of my favourites for toy making as it's soft and has a very neat finish. I changed the pattern slightly - firstly the skirt 'leaves' weren't working out for me so I adapted it to make my own skirt. Also the wings seemed too 'floppy' and I fancied something a bit more decorative, so I searched for a pattern for some small wings and found these.

I'm quite happy with her, she is cute and I'm sure Little P will love her. I personally am not a big fan of the 'fringe' and if I were to do it again I'd definitely do her hair slightly different, but this is a great little pattern and it's super-easy.

I have also made another softie for Little P's friend, who had his second birthday last week. The Little Man loves Monsters University, especially Mike Wazowski, so I thought I'd give one of them a go...

This little chap was fun to make (although his fingers and toes tool a while to work!) and I'm pleased with him - he's probably one of the more intricate amigurumis I have made - he even has surface stitches for lips and an eyelid! And felt detailing for mouth and eye. He even has pipe cleaners in his legs so they can bend nicely. I like this little chap and was sad to see him leave my table - although I have been informed that he was well received by the Birthday Boy! yay!

In my last post I mentioned a 'blog swap' with Maddy of From Twelve To Two Fifteen, and showed off my stash of yarn I ordered especially for it.... well there has been progress, in the form of a small pile of granny squares. I love this pattern (Summer Garden Granny by Attic24) and it works up so quickly. I am also loving the yarn and the colours and can't wait to make the pile grow and grow!

You may also remember my empty frames waiting for prints to arrive.... well shortly after that post they turned up. Both on the same day too, to make it doubly exciting. Both were bought through Etsy from artists which I very much admire.
First up is a little 5x5 print from an artist called Geninne Zlatkis - I have a couple of her books and love her stamping, so it's great to have one of her watercolour prints up on my wall. It came all the way from Mexico (a country I love) and features cacti (which I very much love) so needless to say I do indeed love it. I also kind of want to frame the packaging it came in - the outer envelope and inner paper bag are both hand-stamped with some of those famous Geninne stamps which are so beautiful...

Love it! The second one was from an artist called RiverLuna from San Francisco (another place I love) and is another watercolour print. It's so pretty, I love it up on my wall, and my little collection is looking good.

I have my old California licence plate up too, and hope to get a picture sometime soon, when light is better. A little bit of 'me' space full of things I love.

I'm now going to head off and maybe crochet some more squares, and I can confirm the cake attempt no.2 is out of the oven and looks good, phew! So until next time...